The Warriors came up short down the stretch as they lost 109-113 to the Pelicans at New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center. During the third quarter of the game, an internal disagreement seemingly broke out for Golden State, just moments after they earned and lost their first lead of the entire game.
Brandin Podziemski brought the ball down the floor, and Quinten Post trailed him to eventually set a screen and draw the mismatch. Post switched on Podziemski’s primary defender at the time, Bryce McGowens, and drew him into the post.
He clearly had a mismatch inside the paint and called for a pass from Podziemski, who seemed to ignore his call. Steve Kerr called a timeout, and subsequently, Post was seen intensely shouting something at Podziemski as the team walked towards the sidelines.
The broadcast caught Draymond Green pulling both the young Warriors players back and calming them down before the action resumed. De’Anthony Melton and other Warriors players also stepped in to calm them down.
Podz and Post were about to fight during a timeout and Draymond broke them up 👀 pic.twitter.com/OyAWxdzmlP
— BrickCenter (@BrickCenter_) February 25, 2026
NBA fans saw the short disagreement go viral on social media as the shorthanded Warriors struggled without three of their star players: Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Kristaps Porzingis. They expressed their opinions on the incident very candidly.
“Warriors team fighting each other 💀 Whole franchise in shambles 😭.”
“Draymond teaching a lesson 🤣🤣.”
“Something has gone terribly wrong.”
“Draymond playing peacemaker? Lmao.”
“Boys struggling without Steph.”
“Good or bad team doesn’t matter; this happens in sports on almost every level,” said a rational fan who understood that this level of intensity is common in competitive sports.
Several such reactions flooded the internet as several fans oscillated between exaggerating the impact of such an incident and understanding that disagreements are natural in a young lineup playing basketball.
We do not know exactly what was said between the players, but it was clearly a result of their pent-up frustrations from an intense game.
When Steve Kerr saw the incident, he initially yelled to stop the argument, but when he saw that Draymond Green was talking to the young players as a veteran, he let the team sort it out amongst themselves. Even after the game, Kerr praised Green for running the floor and leading the team.
Podziemski finished the game with 16 points, 15 rebounds, three assists, and two steals while going 7-18 from the floor (38.9 FG%) and 1-6 from beyond the arc (16.7 3P%) in 32 minutes of action. Meanwhile, Post had six points, nine rebounds, and one assist while shooting 3-7 from the field (42.9 FG%).
The Warriors have now fallen to 30-28 for the season after this loss and are eighth in the West currently. On the other hand, the Pelicans improved to 17-42 and are 14th in the Western Conference.
Golden State now heads to Memphis to face the Grizzlies tomorrow on the second night of a back-to-back for the Warriors. And the Pelicans will host the Jazz on Thursday, February 26.
